A beautiful "biography" of Alzheimer's disease, if a bit outdated. I especially enjoyed the description of the trials of Ralph Raldo Emerson, Jonathan Swift, and Willem de Kooning. ( )

I thought this book was going to be about one person's Alzheimers experience, however it was a history of Alzheimers itself. Very scary and interesting.
The funniest thing about this book, is I had read it earlier but FORGOT I read it!!! ( )

I am taking a training class for my job about Alzheimer's and I decided to read this book because I wanted more information about the disease. This book was very readable and simple to understand, but still had a fair amount of valuable medical information.

In the beginning sections of the book, I kept thinking how amazing the human brain is. I guess it is really no wonder that it doesn't always hold out as long as the rest of the body. When I think about it, I am just totally in awe of the fact that all the neurons in my brain are firing in exactly the right way that I can be sitting here, typing, forming coherent thoughts, recognizing everything around me, etc. The brain is just an amazing organ.

This book provided a well-balanced portrayal of the disease by alternating medical information with personal stories of individuals affected by Alzheimer's. I thought it provided a very humanizing account of the disease. For much of the book, I was depressed thinking about all of the horrible things that Alzheimer's disease does to individuals. However, the end of the book was slightly uplifting. Alzheimer's is still a tragic disease, but in the last few chapters of the book, the author really makes a case for how the disease really has some things to teach us about life and humanity and the way we care for each other. ( )

Although this book documents and explains the progress of Alzheimer's disease from the early to the final stages, it ends up leaving the reader not only comforted but also with an almost-appreciation for this manner of death. Mr. Shenk has done a great service in making this information available. If you should read this, sir, know that I (and others) thank you. ( )

Shenk makes it clear to people that Alzheimer’s is going to be a huge socioeconomic issue within in the next ten to twenty years, but the book also approaches Alzheimer’s with a sense of dignity, stating that the people who live with it should not be treated as outcasts or lost causes. He handles the subject matter with the utmost respect, giving equal time to those suffering as to those fighting for a cure. The pacing and structuring work so well that I tended to forget I was reading a non-fiction narrative. The greatest strength of the book is that Shenk steps aside and lets others speak in their own words rather than try to take over their stories and bend them to the will of his narrative. ( )